New Delhi, Jan 19 (UNI) Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said that it has arrested an absconding accused Narender Kumar Patel who was the Director of Jay Ambe Gowri Chem Limited, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) for cheating State Bank of India to the tune of Rs 65.39 crore by using forged documents.
A 'Look Out Circular' was issued against Patel last year and he was detained by the Immigration officials at Ahmedabad airport and later arrested by ED. The accused was produced before PMLA Special Court, Hyderabad and sent on 10-day ED custody till January 29 for his interrogation.
The ED took up the case to investigate under PMLA on the basis of CBI FIR registered on February 18, 2018 under section 120-B read with 420, 467, 468 & 471 of IPC, 1860 and 13(2) read with 13(1)(d) of PC Act, 1988, which disclosed that accused Narender Kumar Patel and others had committed fraud by cheating SBI to the tune of Rs 65.29 crore.
Investigation under PMLA revealed that State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur had also declared Jay Ambe Gowri Chem Limited, Narender Kumar Patel and other Directors of the company as wilful defaulters to the tune of Rs 36.14 crore.
The officials in the agency said that earlier that the Economic Offence Wing of CBI had also registered an FIR on March 31, 2016 based on a complaint filed the Exim Bank wherein some companies nor its Directors repaid loan to EXIM Bank, thereby causing a loss of Rs 30.76 Crore to EXIM Bank.
“It is further revealed that Jay Ambe Gowri Chem Limited also availed a loan of Rs 8 Crore from Development Credit Bank Limited which is also not yet paid. Thus, the accused and its company were responsible for loan frauds of amounts in excess of Rs 100 Crore”, the officials said.
The probe agency also revealed that Narender Kumar Patel had deliberately absconded since 2015 and had fled the country along with his family and was residing in the USA and was purposefully staying abroad,enjoying the proceeds of crime and avoiding the CBI probe, they added.
ED officials also said that the fund trail analysis revealed that accused Narender Kumar Patel had authorized huge foreign outward remittances from the accounts of Jay Ambe Gowri Chem Limited in lieu of import advances and thereafter loans availed from SBI turned into NPA. It was suspected that in the guise of non-existent imports, he had illegally shifted proceeds of crime abroad for his enjoyment, they added.
Last year, the ED issued ‘Look Out Circular’ against him and on the basis of information shared by ED, he was intercepted and detained by the Indian Immigration authorities at Ahmedabad International Airport and subsequently arrested by ED.
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